-Disclaimer-

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha's anime is licensed by Geneon Entertainment; its studio is Seven Arcs. Anime is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. The manga is illustrated by Koji Hasegawa. Characters, Locations, and other intellectual property from the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha universe is to be attributed to the above as warranted.

Fan-Original content includes:

Characters Attributed to Rimshooter: Ame Yagami and Hinode Seitsu. Hark, Secele, Destiny, Eternity, the Apparition

Characters Attributed to Taeniaea: Iriai and Hiruko Seitsu. Yumeko Seitsu, Priri.

Locations Attributed to Rimshooter: District III Civilian Hospital, Lonely Soul's Orphanage, Unknown Location, Temple, Seitsu Residence.

Factions Attributed to Rimshooter: Unknown Faction

Concepts, Events, and Items Attributed to Rimshooter: Red Sky Incident, Way Cranaagan is divided into Districts, Ame's 'Magic' Sight, Secele's Device

Concepts, Events, and Items to Taeniaea: Memory of Dawn and Hope for Dawn, Priri's device

...And several other things that we don't really care about enough to mention, which brings us to:

Rimshooter's Note: And the dams break.

Taeniaea's Note: The action picks up, Hark begins to make his real moves.

Neyr Deus

-Story of the Four Birds-

Past to Present Ten: Declaration of War

1200 Hours

-District III Hospital

-Subaru Nakajima

Subaru averted her eyes sheepishly as Nanoha entered the lobby area she and the girl she had saved were in, disapproving frown in place.

"Subaru." Nanoha began. "...what's this I hear about you engaging five opponents of unknown capabilities at once?" In the background, at the edge of the door, Subaru could just make out Vivio's face peaking through the door-frame alongside a girl with violet eyes who was staring at Zafira, who was in wolf form, curiously. 'Wait...' Subaru thought, 'Zafira was watching...'

Lo and behold, the blue-headed girl she had been looking for had somehow manifested next to her injured arm, staring at the bandages. When the girl looked up, meeting Subaru's eyes, the Silver Ace cringed internally.

"There was a non-combatant..." Subaru started, only for Nanoha to cut her off.

"Your baseline report says you caught a sword bare-handed." The agitated ace countered, "Explain that!"

"If I didn't catch it, it would have done significantly more-"

"Dodge it, or cast a barrier!"

"There wasn't enough time to, I had to remain stationary, they were targeting the girl!" Subaru exclaimed defensively.

On the other end of the exchange, Nanoha's threatening expression remained, promising pain, even as it melted away and the Ace of Aces sighed. "I know." She conceded, "...you just worried me... and someone else too, it looks like."

At that, Subaru's gaze drifted back to Ame, who was currently staring at the girl Subaru had rescued fervently, before looking up. "Subaru-neesama..." She said, trailing off slightly, as if unsure what to say next, "...you're not allowed to lose."

Of all the thing Subaru might have expected the soft-spoken girl to say, that was the last of the list, if it was even there. Still...

"I'm here, right?" She said, ruffling the girls hair with her good hand. "That means I won."

"No..." Ame said, "...it means you didn't lose."

"You're hard to reassure, you know."

She didn't respond immediately, attention flitting back to the girl laying on the cot next to Subaru. "...sorry."

When Subaru turned to face Ame... it was to find her staring into the eyes of the girl Subaru had most recently saved.

"Quel re nem, tenus?" The girl spoke. The words weren't understandable, but clearly a question. It didn't surprise Subaru so much as everyone else she didn't speak a recognized language, as she'd spoken in it before... what did surprise her was when Ame replied in the same language.

"Quel re nem, diulo-ex?"

There was a pause in their conversation as the two stared at each other, one warily, and the other impassively. It was a battle of suspicion versus indifference... and apparently indifference won, because the black-haired on spoke broke the silence, "Raven."

"...Ame Yagami."

"Ame..." Subaru asked, calling both girls' attention, one's eyes a deep red, the other a solemn blue, "...how is it you can communicate with her?"

When Ame tilted her head and asked, "You can't?" Subaru felt a deep, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The other girl, Raven, if they had just done what Subaru thought they did, apparently identified the problem and, after glancing around the room for a moment, closed her eyes, peeking Ame's interest and drawing the blue-haired girl's attention completely back to her. 'She's so focused... I wonder if she even sees anyone else right now?'

When Raven's eyes opened, they were blue. What was more disconcerting, however, was when the girl began looking about confusedly, latching onto Subaru and Ame's faces.

"...Where?" She spoke, clearly understandable to everyone in the room. For a moment, Subaru wasn't sure it was the girl before that had actually said the words, having heard nothing but the cautious, solemn tone of exotic, illegible words come from her mouth before.

That didn't stop the question from being answered, though. "A hospital. We were attacked, remember?"

"No..." The girl said, "...no I don't."

Subaru and Nanoha exchanged a glance.

-District Zero, Hayate's Office

-Hayate Yagami

Miraculously, or not if you really thought about the effort involved, Hayate had finished her paperwork for the day... and then she recieved a message. Turning to her computer, Hayate saw a pending video conference with Yuuno. 'Impeccable timing as always, here we go...' She thought, recalling the request she'd sent a couple of days ago.

"Yuuno." Hayate said as the boy's face appeared on screen.

"Hayate." He returned, "...I looked into that seal design you sent me." He shifted slightly.

"And?"

"And..." He took a breathe, "...I haven't found a single match, or anything similar."

Hayate sighed, leaning back and massaging her forehead. "Nothing?"

"Nothing." He affirmed. "...but, from looking at it myself... it's capable of holding back an enormous sum of power... but there're several misalligned runes that cause it to fail."

"Fail how?" Hayate asked.

"...if it's holding up to its maximum capacity? I'd say in the span of one to two weeks, all the layers will break, with twice as much energy in each layer... that's enough power to cause a catastrophic dimmensional rupture. What's worse, is that the seal is tenuous enough that attempting to draw power from it only weakens it further and accelerates the process." Yuuno's face grew serious, "Hayate, where did the design for this seal come from?"

"My adopted daughter." The young officer replied. "It's currently being used to hold an unknown amount of magical energy within her."

"Where is she now?" Yuuno asked immediately.

"With Zafira at my house, but he sent me a notice that Nanoha had arrived and that they were going to the District III hospital so Nanoha could get a report from Subaru over... over an attack from the same androids as the ones from the Red Sky Incident." Finishing, realization dawned on Hayate's face as she cursed under her breathe. "Ame was found during that incident, surrounded by mechanical parts! She's a target!"

"Hayate-" Yuuno started, but the bruenette had already stood, heading for the door as Rein sped to her side.

Pulling out her phone as she entered the elevator of the command building, Hayate began dialing Fate's number.

"Fate. You need to get to the hospital, now." She stated.

Their unknown adversaries were moving, en masse, and given the nature of the incident where, if she was correct, they first tried accomplishing their objectives...

They wouldn't be stopped by a meagre force of TSAB personnell... aces or no aces.

'What kept them from moving...?' She wondered, even as she rushed out of the office building, drawing curious, bewildered stares all the way.

-District IV

-Fate Testaraossa-Harlaown

When Fate recieved Hayate's call and heard her tone, she forsook her place at the spaceport. She had skipped out on going with Vivio to Hayate's for it... but given the circumstances, if Hayate was concerned that meant something big was happening.

As she entered her car and began speeding toward the hospital, fast as she could without breaking any laws, one might wonder how much faster she'd have gone if she knew just how true that was.

-Somewhere in District III

-Secele

Secele stood atop a high rooftop, looking over the ravaged remains of the District. 'So much destruction has already been visited upon this place... why, of all places, did you flee here?'

Destiny appeared beside her, and Secele turned slightly, a solemn expression on her face. "They're ready?" The cyborg nodded, and Secele turned back to the city, observing it for a few moments. From the rubble below, to the glimmering white in the distance. "They know their paremeters?" It was a pointless question, but any time Secele could waste...

Destiny's hand placed itself on her shoulder, tightening slightly. Not at all reassuringly, either... it was a warning. Secele knew enough to figure that out.

Lowering her head, and mentally asking for forgiveness, Secele's next words were quiet. "Then let's begin."

'Sorry.'

And thus the Third Pedestrian District of Mid-Childa was overcome by chaos once more.

-Elsewhere

-Eternity

As per Priri's request, Eternity had remained within interception range of the girl Priri wished to protect. That is, she'd stayed within a mile of her at all times. When Secele initiated Hark's latest procedure... Eterniy's processing chip kicked into gear, dictating her response.

Some small part of her found it insulting.

Multiple signatures detected. Label: Type-Alpha Bio-Mechanical Combat Unit. Total: 24 and counting. Targets Moving toward Secondary Objective. Probable Hostility. Secondary Objective: Protect individual 'Iriai Seitsu.' Priority: High...

Initiating Counter-Procedures.

...but that same part which found the forced compulsion a humiliation, was, in this particular case, in agreement with the course of action... which only spurred Eternity on even more.

The cyborg moved from a passive position in the recesses of a broken building to a dead sprint, moving at speeds untrackable by the average human's eye... only to grind to a stop several feet from the building. All around her were the masked gynoids, arm-blades drawn.

Surrounded. Subjects deemed hostile. In direct way of objective.

Initiating Counter-Procedure.

Eternity moved, and the gynoids vanished from sight.

There was little to be seen save for random flashes of blue light, but anyone capable of tracking the speeds at which the beligerents were moving would realize something shocking... and disturing.

Eternity's attackers were teleporting instantaneously from one location to the next, working together seamlessly in a pattern designed specifically to disable their target as quickly as possible... but Eternity was not only keeping up with them, but gradually gaining the upper hand.

As more gynoids arrived, that small human part of Eternity let out a groan of frustration.

Obviously, moving to assist Iri wasn't an option until these were dealt with.

Action Inhibitor#1 Released.

...the flashes of blue light began to increase in frequency and intensity as the severed limbs and broken remains of gynoids began to litter the streets.

-Inside Hospital

Nanoha didn't know exactly what happened, but the personnel in the hospital tensed almost in unison... when there was an explosion, it took a large sum of Nanoha's willpower not to imemdiately go investigate it. 'I'm responsible for Vivio, Iri, Ame, and everyone else in this room right now... Subaru's injured. If I leave right now, and something happens... Ame's seal is weak enough, I don't know anything about Raven, and if Vivio were to let loose, who knows what'd happen...'

"You can go. Hayate's already joined the fight outside. We'll take care of things here." Nanoha turned, seeing Signum and Shamal standing in the doorway, ushering Vivio and Iri into the room. "Zafira's outside as well."

Nanoha nodded, rushing out the door. Turning to Subaru, Signum continued, "Caro and Erio are at a point between here and the front doors – Hayate manged to arrange their deployment. You're going to be acting as a buffer between us and the front line... Hayate's worried about an attack." Subaru nodded, heading for the door and pausing as Shamal leveled a threatening gaze on her.

"No more catching sharp objects with your hands. I'm not cleaning up the mess that makes of you if I don't have to."

Subaru nodded again, "I'll try not to." And with that she was gone, and Shamal closed the door behind her, Signum levelling a meangful stare at Vivio, Iri, Ame, and Raven.

"You four are staying here. No exceptions."

-Fate

When Fate started seeing explosions in the distance from her position on the highway, she forsook her car entirely, activating her barrier jacket and flying toward the ravaged district.

Upon entering it, Fate was greeted by a warzone. There were drones everywhere, engaging TSAB forces at every turn. She helped where she could, but Hayate had told her to go to the hospital... which meant whatever was happening would be centered there and, sure enough, as Fate grew closer to it the intensity of the fighting increased. The hospital itself was almost under siege, with the TSAB concentrating as many forces as it could just outside it, fighting a veritable swarm of drones.

Nanoha and Hayate were on the roof of the hospital, periodically firing large shooter spells into the enemy ranks... which seemed to fill up almost as fast as they were emptied. 'It's like the JS Incident... but worse... at least there's no massive starship in the sky.'

'Fate'Hayate's voice rang out in her ear, 'Go join Signum and Shamal inside. You're more suited to close-quarters fighting.'

'Right.' Fate returned, entering the hospital. 'Which room?'

'First floor, 5A.'

Fate couldn't help but look back at the destruction being wrought in front of the hospital. 'In a matter of minutes... Cranaagan has become the site of a small war... how?'

-Priri's Room

-Priri

As always, Priri stood in an empty room, staring through the clear glass of a solitary window. Outsie the window, in the garden below, two girls were at play. One faceless, features indistinct – the other the person she instinctively recognized as Iriai.

Under her passive observation, they played their games as they had every time she'd visited this place before... but this time...Iri tripped, falling and skinning her knee. As the other girl moved toward Iri...everything fell away, leaving Iri sitting alone in a vast sea of darkness, hands reaching toward her from the depths at all angles as she gazed about, confused and afraid...

Priri's eyes snapped open, and she stood from her bed immediately. Clenching her fists, her magic came easily, washing over them in a crackling black sheathe. Stepping to the door, Priri took a stance and closed her violet eyes, gathering even more magical power in front of her right fist in the form of a black orb, drawn back, as a large seal appeared in front of her left.

As the orb grew to be the size of her head, an ethereal wind picked up, blowing her hood down, allowing her hair, a stark contrasting mix of black and white strands, to fall free above her eyes.

Priri's right hand opened, as if to grasp the air, and pulled back, causing the orb to double in size. Opening her eyes, Priri thrust her hand forward, into the ball. The orb swelled, obscuring her beneath it.

"Sphere Shell Burst!" Her voice cried from within the sphere, and it exploded, washing over her room and obscuring everything.

When the magical energy cleared, Priri was standing in front of a ruptured steel wall surrounded by scorched ground. Wordlessly, she levitated off of the ground before rocketing out into the corridors.

'No time for your games, Hark' She thought, encountering a gynoid and blasting it aside, and another, and another.

A trail of destruction was left in her wake.

'Eternity can't save you. That means I have to.'

-Laboratory

-Hark

"Finally." Hark spoke, a small amount of awe in his voice as he directed security detachments into Priri's path and watched them be thrown aside effortlessly. "I've been waiting to see this far too long... it's unfortunate for you, but your actions have been accounted for." He smiled darkly, "...Now I just need to take care of some loose ends."

With that, he vanished in a flash of silver-white light.

Chapter End